Monday, 21 November 2022

  Today we will be operating on our lovely vessel Eldey for the 09:00 and 13:00 Classic Whale Watching tours. Make sure to dress appropriately for the tours as it is always colder on sea than on land.

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 13:00

  COVID-19: Keep in mind that passengers and crew are asked to ensure their own hygiene and safety at all times. Washing hands thoroughly with soap and using a hand sanitizer is advised.

Report from Eldey:  It was a really nice to be sailing into the bay of Faxaflói this morning as we lensed with easterly 7-11m/s winds, however they became bitterly cold once the boat turned and we got it hitting our faces which soon turned quite red with the wind. It took us about 45mins to get to the areas of life this morning, first observing many seabirds and a few irregular large splashes in the distance. Once arriving we found a small pod of 3-5 white-beaked dolphins that were feeding and very difficult to follow. We then did a sweep in the local area but all the birds disappeared so we just headed back to the same area. Soon we started to see fast travelling minke whales, at least 3-4 in the area coming up multiple time allowing us to see them the second time even if we missed the first. Suddenly a big bushy blow, a humpback whale came up to breathe 300-400m away and soon dove again. Maybe busy feeding maybe being elusive towards the boats. Every time the humpback surfaced it was 300-400 away and always travelling in different directions making it challenging and frustrating but we tried our best and was able to the blows and the back once more before we had to head home. Whilst waiting for the humpback 2-3 young white-beaked dolphins came to play next to the boat for a little while. A little challenging but we saw a lot and the sunrise was also quite beautiful.

- Megan Whittaker

Report from Eldey: As we set off in the afternoon for another whale watching tour the wind had picked up with many more whitecaps to be seen in comparison to this morning. We continued on our journey out to where we had seen lots of cetacean activity on the morning tour in the hope of more of the same. As the tour progressed we still hadn't seen anything and the swell had started to rock the boat a bit more. Then suddenly 3 big blows appeared, one to the left, one in front and one on the right. We tried to get a closer look of the one on the right which appeared to be surfacing more regularly. We struggled to get a good look. Out of nowhere the humpback whale appeared about 50 metres away from us! It surfaced a few times before showing us it's beautiful fluke. We waited to see if we would see this individual again but it proved to be an elusive humpback, perhaps it was resting. We continued to see more blows throughout the tour and saw 2-3 humpbacks in total. Despite the winds and large swell we came back to Reykjavik with a boat full of very happy passengers. 

- Rob Hyman

Common guillemot, European shag, Great cormorant,  black-legged kittiwake, black-headed gull, black-backed gull, glaucous gull, herring gull, eider duck.